Midna's build

[Silverwolf2691]

Hope this is ok to put here.

 

I wanted to put the history and semi build up of my truck so far for both record and might be able to help others some how. 

 

So, I have been a dodge fan for years, partly because my father works at a dodge dealership and because the only non dodge product we have ever had in the family was a mid 2000s Subaru Legacy. My first time driving anything was when I was like 3-6 years old, my father let me steer his Jeep Grand Wagoneer down the road. We actually still have that jeep but it has fallen into disrepair because of reasons. I personally have had a 1999 Jeep Cherokee (on loan from the parents), 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 (was my first vehicle I could call my own, sold a few years ago), 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 (nearly my dream truck, needed to be a sport to be my 100% dream truck), currently also own a 2019 Ram 2500 (needed because I chose to start sled pulling with the 2001 Cummins and I needed a second vehicle). Also have a 2016 Yamaha Stryker for a motorcycle.

 

So this was the morning after it was dropped off to me in 2015:

 

I actually bought the truck off of a classmate of mine so that was a fun surprise.   

 

And so began my foray into the world of diesels.

 

Unfortunately, previous owner didn't take good care of the truck. No power steering fluid, and it was really low on oil, like half of the required amount drained out my first oil change, and the steering was really all over the place. Also, the exhaust was cut off right at the end of the cab, and the mounting rod that attaches to the tranny had broken off allowing the exhaust to just rattle against the tranny crossmember. So I swapped it to a set of MBRP cool duals.              Out with the old

 

 

In with the new.

 

Few months later gave the truck a bath. 

 

 

 

Also after, digging through my photos, I don't take a lot of photos of the projects I've done. Or I cant find them. 

First big issue was that when I went and got new tires for the truck, the place that was doing the alignment broke my nv5600. Unfortunately, said place is a regional chain in the northeast and gave me $500 as compensation after the company that rebuilt the tranny said that they had seen this kind of failure quite often. they forced the shifter into a place it wasn't supposed to be and separated the circular thing from the actual shift rails. Top right corner is where it was disconnected.

      

 

So i used this time to get a fresh rebuilt tranny, rebuilt driveshafts, a Valair dual disk clutch and new shift tower.

[Silverwolf2691]

Rebuilt the front end entirely except the steering box at this time.

hubs, u joints, Synergy ball joints, Synergy t-style steering linkages, DOR tack bar, swapped the steering box brace from my 1500 onto my Cummins, and attempted a PSC power steering pump, rebuilt the vacuum pump. 

 

 

And this is what happens when you don't clean the reservoir very well of the power steering pump after sand blasting it so I could paint it..

 

 

PSC pumps now come with a reservoir so you dont have to swap them over. I had issues getting the new pump to reservoir o ring to fit so i reused the old one to fit.    

[Silverwolf2691]

Just to keep this semi up to date, and because I don't take pictures of things very often, after this the only big things were a head gasket swap and I started sled pulling. Everything else was maintenance for the most part.

 

Current things:

Need a new turbo (hope to finally get the final word on the rules tomorrow for the pulling club).

Need to fix my head again. Valve guides and seals went bad since I didn't replace the valve guides the first time. Whoops. 

Need to add some traction enhancing stuff like traction bars and bump stops,

Have new tires ready to go on, but we hit the ice box this week, low teens for highs.

 

Future plans are a full data logging setup and some strategic weight removal and/or shifting. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Sounds like your going to be pulling the head off for valve work. Might as well port and polish the head and add studs. Might want something good for a head gasket too. As I'm not much of a Cummins OEM fan.

[Silverwolf2691]

Put studs in the first time the head came off so thats taken care of..

 

Hope to get this head

 https://djprecisionmachine.com/product/vp44-stage-2-24v-cummins-performance-head/

But my money tree needs to sprout soon.  But i need the turbo first..

[Mopar1973Man]

Sprout? Bush? Better be full grown money tree. Man that head is rather speedy. Wow!

[Stanley]

I been wanting to get a spare head, I had one but stupidly sold it 3 years ago, then I can rebuild/port and polish as I go, hell maybe even Mill the intake off. Have everything ready to bolt on.

I guess at that point just a spare engine that's freshly rebuilt with all the above wouldn't be a bad idea either. I love doing that stuff anyway.

[Silverwolf2691]

Whelp that was a lot of money. $2650 to @dieselautopower for a turbo, injectors, valve springs, and push rods.

 

Went with 62/68/14 on the turbo.

7x.011 injectors popped at 320 bar to try to keep the wear in from dropping the pop pressure too much..

Ø3/8 x .093 push rods

110# valve springs

 

Also got a new addition to my fleet.. a 99 ram 1500 SCSB 4x4 with a 5.2 and a 5 speed. Truck was/is a bit of a basket case that I'm trying to straighten out. My brother was the one to buy it originally, he got it for $600. truck supposedly needed a throw out bearing. He bought it as a parts truck then took the led tail lights out and a hood hinge for his Cummins (his broke). Then the truck sat for a year-ish before I got to it. Traded a Milwaukee m18 impact and some of my time to help him with his Cummins. So I've been getting this truck back to drivable condition for the past couple months. Main reason I got it was because I'm looking at a career change and I need to sell my new truck in order to facilitate that going smoothly. That and I need to get rid of that payment. I'm living paycheck to paycheck right now because of it.

 

Then on top of all this, a couple weekends ago, a guy from a few towns over who apparently drives by on my road often sees all of my family's trucks and came up and offered a Texas 98.5 ram 2500 Cummins ECLB, Automatic, with 320-350,000 mile on the chassis and body, but the engine and trans are only 25k old. Apparently the previous engine sucked a valve or something, he made it seem like the valve lash got too excessive and a valve dropped.. I don't know. The engine was rebuilt and had the usual mild upgrades done.. It's got a hotrod vp44, larger injectors, larger turbo, banks tuner (), the trans was given a billet overhaul (maybe not an intermediate shaft..), supposedly the suspension has been gone through as well, he said moog parts so that might be a mixed bag in regards to longevity.. He said he wants $14,500 for it, like bottom dollar. He doesn't need to get rid of it so I'm guessing that number is not moving at all. I'm considering it as a tow vehicle for my Blue Truck to sled pulls.. But that leaves me with what to do about having 3 trucks.. I can get around the taxes in CT with a Classic Vehicle plate, but 3 vehicles might be a bit much.. IDK, all I know is I have to sell my new truck before I can consider that truck..

 

Oh boy.. lots to think about.. lots to do and little time to do it..

[Mopar1973Man]

Hate to say the more I work on the 4th gens the more I wanna keep my older trucks. Even Thor being a 3rd Gen its a OK truck but seriously it is more expensive to maintain and keep up. Now my older Beast is way easier to maintain compared to a 3rd gen. Now the last job doing a clutch and rear main seal on a 4th gen took 3 days of pure fighting. I typically do a clutch job in half a day on 2nd Gen.

[Silverwolf2691]

parts finally came and the next week is going to be something resembling warm (40s).. turbo photo was blurry that why its not posted.. 

 

 

@dieselautopower love the boxes lol

 

 

The old down pipe is the only part thats going to give me trouble i think (knock on wood). Everything else has been off semi recently.

[dieselautopower]

It will not be the same truck!  

[Silverwolf2691]

Need to get some traction bars too.. plans are in place though .

 

[Silverwolf2691]

There we go. 

 

@dieselautopower, if i wanted to paint the housings or something, whats the warranty impact of that?

[Mopar1973Man]

2 minutes ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

There we go. 

 

@dieselautopower, if i wanted to paint the housings or something, whats the warranty impact of that?

 

 

If its OK, I would consider powder coat more so because of heat. Powder coat would hold up much better vs rattle can paint. Just a thought... 

 

Gotta admit its a pretty spiny thingy... 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Mopar1973Man

[dieselautopower]

Powder coating is better.  It would not affect the warranty unless you assembled it wrong or the wheel was damaged when the cover was off.

 

[Silverwolf2691]

Hard to match patriot blue in powder coat I think.. Was also considering ceramic coating the turbine housing and down pipe.. Might have to wait on all that though 

 

  

44 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Gotta admit its a pretty spiny thingy... 

 

Oh trust me I'm excited right now.. I'm just trying to balance cleaning my house for company this Saturday and getting my truck back on the road. That math isn't looking great, might take time off to do some of it.. 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Silverwolf2691

[Silverwolf2691]

 

Well that didn't go as planned.. Went to start swapping the injectors on my truck yesterday, took the day off because it was almost 50°f. Everything was going fine until my intake horn of all things.. One of the long bolts I have been limping along for a while now with a partly stripped head, 6 point usually would have taken it off but I had my splined sockets. Needless to say the bolt started stripping worse. So I cut a slot in it, and used an impact screw driver head on my impact to try to break it loose. only succeeded in breaking the the screw driver tip.. @#$%#, so now I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the head off the bolt to just lift everything off the bolt. I don't know how its stuck, I didn't tighten it that tight when I last took the intake horn off, unless it started rusting and that's why...

 

Then I pulled the rockers cause of the valve springs and I thought the injectors wouldn't clear them (they will..) and I looked at the rocker arms and trunnions, all the ones I pulled have galling on the bottom side of the trunnion and arm.. so am I looking at new rocker assemblies?

 

I thought I read something somewhere about an upgraded trunnion or rocker arm from the 6.7, anyone have any info? 

 

Also I found the culprit for the blue smoke. Cylinder #1 intake valve seal has lifted from its seat..

Edited February 11, 2022 by Silverwolf2691

[Mopar1973Man]

Anti seize is a good friend of mine for commonly removed bolts. Like intake horn bolts, APPS sensor bolts, etc. 

[Silverwolf2691]

@dieselautopower, is there any way for the 50s and the Quad I have to spool the 62/68/14? I need to get a vehicle on the road so I can sell my 2019...

 

Also do you know what the nose pressure of the valve springs are?

 

Between weather, lack of a garage, and previous issues I'm debating just getting the turbo and downpipe on to just get it on the road, and get the injectors, springs, and pushrods in at a later date. Hopefully when my brother gets his Jeep out of the garage I can get my truck in to finish the swap.. 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Silverwolf2691

[dieselautopower]

50HP injectors and a Quadzilla will spool the 62mm.  It just won't do it as fast.

 

Regarding springs are you looking for pressure a specific installed height?  We changed manufacturers last year and these are made by a company that makes top fuel cars and other extreme performance.  They are designed for daily driving and to handle 4500RPM at high boost.  I have other springs to offer for 5500RPM+